La vie en France

Well we did it - we bought a house in Charente department of the Poitou Charente region. It is between Cognac and Angouleme in a small village called Moulidars. Last Thursday - 12th May we got the ferry from Portsmouth to Cherboug and drove the 380 odd miles for our first stay in our French house.

I give a massive thank you to Graham Downie and his wife Juli-Anne of Cognac Property Services who helped us find the place, negotiate our path through the French legal system and who went the extra mile in helping us at the last minute when my mother became incapacitated and passed away, resulting in a funeral on the day we were due to complete the sale - not necessarily the most auspicious start, but thanks to Graham & Juli-Anne definitely not as stressful as it might have been.

Graham also writes a blog "A little drop of Cognac" which is well worth reading for anyone interested in property in France and/or the Charente area in general - our house appears in his blog, but here are a few to illustrate just what a cracking place it is:

Imagine sitting there in 30 degree sunshine, sipping a cold G&T (or if we want to be a little local, then a glass of Pineau de Charente)

Does it get much better?







The view from the front is across a small dry valley populated with vines

Then if it all gets too much, just go round to the back of the house and slip into the pool












The wildlife is fascinating - lizrds and frogs  I expected, but not "Couleuvre verte et jaune" - the Western Whip Snake - completely harmless, but certainly gave me a bit of a start when I went to investigate a rustling noise in the hedge by the pool - this pair popped out and almost ignoring me carried on their mating ritual - well you would, wouldn't you?

mmm time for another glass of Pineau I think!

Catching up on events

It's been a while since I blogged. Perhaps that's an inevitable thing, you start with good intentions of writing a regular commentary on life, the universe and everything, but then the enthusiasm just tails off and perhaps, horror of horrors, you just have nothing interesting to say!

However, life rolls on and a number of things have happened so I feel that I should document them.

Firstly and most sadly, my mother has died - at the moment it's too raw a feeling to say much, but although her health had deteriorated to the point where she needed nursing care it still came as a shock when it happened so quickly.

A conversation I had with her just a very few weeks ago concerned the house we were buying in France - I showed her the photographs and she said how much she'd like to be able to see it one day - never now to happen which leaves me feeling rather empty. Even more poignantly the day of the sale completion is the day of the funeral.

Another event of note is the purchase of a new aeroplane, as I blogged earlier I rather fancied the CTLS (having flown a CTSW) so I am now the proud owner of G-CGRB and I'll write a separate blog entry about it.

What a sad day!

Today, 29th October 2010, we sold the plane.

Yes, Alliance Aviation, from this Sunday coming will no longer own an aircraft. The reasons are obvious, and in essence the decision was a no-brainer.

• WP is a big, heavy, expensive gas guzzler.
• The group itself is depleted, we never managed to find any new members after one emigrated and one retired so instead of costs being shared amongst 7, it was amongst 5 and with correspondlingly less income as fewer members means less flying.
• The appetite for long trips, for which WP was ideal, seemed to have diminshed amongst us all and the number of hours per year flown by each remaining group member just fell and fell.

So having had the aircraft up for sale for around 2 years, we succumbed today and sold it for not much more than scrap value to a dealer. Weather permitting it will be flown away from Barton on Sunday

A last look at a lovely aeroplane - we've owned it from 1999, I've loved flying it, it's looked after me and never let me down - a sad farewell to an old friend.

 

WP before the respray

and resplendent afterwards

I've joined Twitter!

Read my Tweets!

Why? That's a good question, and one to which I have no definitive answer.

It seems to me that blogging and tweeting are very much the same thing, casting your thoughts to the wind for no other reason than that you can.

Maybe, just maybe such exercise, being one that requires thought and some degree of manual dexterity (just to type) will contribute to the well being of participents. There was an article on Today on Radio 4 earlier in the week describing a study into dementia which suggests that keeping an active intellectual life reduces the risk factors for the onset of Alzheimer's. Perhaps there's a study to be done correlating numbers of bloggers and tweeters with dementia sufferers?

A fun family day

Society moves on and becomes more secular year by year (and what a good thing that is), but with that comes fewer formal occasions - weddings, christenings etc. But if not a formal christening (for which of course one should be a christian, I wonder how many are?) then what?

The answer - a Naming Ceremony. And that's what was organised for Seraphina - Here are a few photos

There are more in gallery 29 on my photo site:

www.ianj49.co.uk

 

  

  

 

 

 

and then the party was over:

A Photographic Afternoon Out

It was my Grandson Quinn's birthday a couple of weeks ago, he asked for a digital camera. After much deliberation a family decision was made to pool resources and get him one which offered more than a simple point & shoot as he's expressed a real interest in photography. So Fuji Finepix in his grasp, and Olympus E-P2 in mine we set off along the Bridgewater Canal in the direction of Astley Green.

I thought I'd just post some pictures of "the snapper snapped"

Checking those leading lines!

Looking for the next shot

Photographing Grandad
















Small Chap - BIG Engine

Learning to use the E-P2 (and some new Software)

Well, a day off work yesterday and as the weather cleared a little in the afternoon I drove through the little village of Belmont and parked up, then walked through the ruins of Hollinshead Hall.
There's not too much to see there apart from the Well House which does make a great subject for a moody photo:

 

is just how it looks (the out of the camera jpgs from the E-P2 are just fantastic!!).

But that then leads me on to the new software I've discovered, LightZone from LightCrafts the most intuitive way yet of post processing - here's a "tweak" done with LightZone:

 

But of course the E-P2 has capabilities of it's own, a set of "Art Filters" for all sorts of effects, the Well House just seemed to lend itself to the "Grainy B&W Film" filter:

 

Some more shots, looking up the lane that wends it's way through Tockholes Plantation first the "out of camera" shot, then a B&W conversion, again done with LightZone

 

Then onwards through the woods, following the upper reaches of the River Roddlesworth before it enters the Roddlesworth Reservoirs - more excellent photo opportunities

All in all, a very pleasant couple of hours and the more I use the E-P2 the more I like it !

A New Camera and a Handsome Subject

Well I took the plunge and decided to sell off all my Sony & Minolta DSLR gear - so far all the lenses and various bits & pieces have gone (and amazingly I've got back more than I paid!) - my new camera an Olympus E-P2 arrived on Thursday last.

So here's the first picture - as shot, straight out of the camera jpg - no post processing other than a resize and little sharpen after the resize!

Thursday 24th Feb - A sad post script - our Gold Laced Wyandotte (for that is the breed she was) died yesterday - we'd had her for nearly 5 years, so not a bad innings for a chicken - I suspect the chicken equivalent of a heart attack or stroke, but at least it was quick. On opening up the chicken house in the morning she didn't come out, just sat in the nest box, which was unusual for her then later that day just went - very sad.

Fallout from Lehman Brothers Collapse

Trust is a funny thing - you only realise how important it is when it's not there. The MPs expenses scandal shows that to perfection - I suspect many people were, up until a few months ago, happy to address a letter to their MP as "The Honorable .......", but not any more.

However, that's not really why I'm musing away this afternoon, rather some thoughts on how I've lost (or so it seems at the moment) a sizeable chunk of money invested for my retirement. Having managed to save some cash over the last few years I had a review with my financial advisors and decided that as I am approaching retirement I should become rather more cautious with any investments and was given an interesting leaflet from DRL (Defined Returns Limited) which offered a 100% guarantee that my capital was secure and would pay me a %'age of the rise in the Footsie over a period of years, but if the index fell would then just pay me back my original capital.

What could go wrong with that?

Everything as it turns out!

Despite the promises in the brochure that this investment was suitable for those who needed to protect their capital it turns out that DRL invested the money with Lehman Brother in the Netherlands. That seems to be significant because despite the brochure saying that DRL and Lehmans UK WERE protected under the financial services protection scheme, Lehmans bv weren't. So when Lehmans went down in the US and the rest of the empire followed there went my dosh.

All may not be lost - so many people have complained about this to the Financial Ombudsman Service that they are conducting a special investigation/review into the matter - an action group has been formed with a website and blog at http://missoldinvestments.co.uk/ and there is an early day motion laid before parliament - so maybe, just maybe all is not yet lost.

Is this the future of Light Aviation?

Whilst I'm still a comitted member of the G-BXWP flying group (see www.allianceaviation.org for details) we do seem to be having difficulty in getting new members for the group, having lost 2 over the last few years, and that together with the increased cost of aviation fuel, maintenance, parking, landing fees etc. etc. just makes me question how long the situation can continue.

So whilst at Barton (or City Airport Manchester as it is now pretentiously named) a few days ago I had a wander around and took a look at the other aircraft there. One type definitely caught my eye - a composite construction, high wing, tricycle undercarriage design that just "looked right" - so a few enquiries and what I had been looking at turned out to be a CTSW from Flight Design of Germany. The microlight school at Barton, Mainair, owns & operates G-CERA so a call to their owner & chief instructor Chris Copple who I've known for many years soon had me booked in for a flight.

Here it is, parked on the apron at Barton:With Chris in the right hand seat, he took me through the pre-flight briefing then we started up and taxied out to the hold for runway 20, did the checks, lined up then full throttle and away we went. WOW - almost before I'd got the throttle fully open we were airborne and climbing out, maintaining 80 kts in the climb and with what seemed an impossible high attitude we saw well over 1,000 fpm on the electronic altimeter.

Yes that's right - the instruments aren't instruments, it is a flat panel display with a representation of an airspeed indicator and rate of climb - the altitude is shown in digits and by pressing various buttons you can see all manner of information that would traditionally be shown on analogue instruments (and yes those are my feet below the panel!!)

Leaving the circuit we headed out to the North West and did some general handling, straight & level, turns left & right, then a climb and a power off clean stall. I have to report the aircraft handles well, no tendancy to drop the nose in the turn and the stall, at about 40kts, was quite docile with a little buffet and gentle "nod" down of the nose. Push forwards, apply power and the stall recovery was straightfoward with very little height loss.

Then Chris suggested I try a PFL - this from around 2,000' - so I pulled back the power, trimmed for the glide and selected a field, had I been in the Cherokee6 I would have now been starting to sweat, however in the CT the main issue seemed to be to keep choosing another field as we sailed past my first choice then my second one - this aircraft really does want to glide a long way!

Then back to Barton and into the circuit, a standard overhead join, descend and set up an approach to 20 for an intended touch & go which I didn't manage - once again, like the PFL I just couldn't get the height off (once again too used to the Cherokee6) - so turning it into a low approach and go-around instead, off we went for another try. This time it was successful, though I rather ballooned it before touching down, so off again perhaps third time lucky? Nice approach, to all intents and purposes a glide approach with 40 flap, just a touch of power to offset the sink before the hedge, straighten up for the crosswind and hold off, hold off, hold off and this one turned into a good one (well any one you walk away from .........!). Taxy back in, shut down and my first flight in a micro-light was over.

So my impressions?

This seems an excellent little aircraft, were I starting from scratch then there's little doubt this would be right there in the frame rather than the Grob or C150 that I actually started on. Depending on the future of the WP group then I could well be interesting in the CTSW or more likely its larger brother the CTLS - although still a two seater, this moves out of the microlight category and gives around 300KG useful load, is slightly larger and more stable and really does look the part - but who knows what the future might bring?